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April 03, 2009

Buongiorno. Some days I feel extremely lucky to live in Northern California - usually when I'm eating local food. When something is truly extraordinary, I can't keep it to myself, because great food is even better when it's shared. The Marin French Cheese Company in Petaluma has been producing some very exciting cheeses: at the United States Championship Cheese Contest 10 days ago their Rouge et Noir Le Petite Chevre Bleu won Best of Class in Mold-Ripened Goat Cheese, and the Second Place Runner up was their Le Petit Chevre, so I promptly sent in my congratulations and organized a small group tasting.

I served eight cheeses, and these four were the runaway hits. See what you think - just remember to leave your cheeses out of the fridge for at least six hours before serving, because they need to be at room temperature for their flavors to bloom and soften up to the right creamy texture.

Rouge et Noir — Le Petite Chevre BleuAn earthy, creamy blue goat's milk cheese with Roquefort blue veins. Essence of white truffle immediately sent me back for more, but everyone else had the same idea: it disappeared quickly. Pair it with that good bottle of Dry Creek Syrah you've been saving a special occasion: this is it.

Rouge et Noir — Le Petite ChevreThis Second Place Runner up is a milder goat's milk cheese for Brie eaters ready to make the transition but but fearing the jump. No blue veins here, but still the flavor hangs around in the nose a while, with just a light tang of goat's milk. The right cheese for a night in front of a fireplace, with comfortable slippers and a sleeping pet.

Rouge et Noir — Mélange BrieNo punches are held back for this goat and cow's milk multi-award winner: extremely ripe, bold, and slightly tangy, bang on the nose. The woodsy finish hangs around awhile too, like rain in the forest. Slather a thin slice of bread with a hefty slab, insert in mouth, narrow the eyes, and exhale slowly through the nose. Whooo, watery eyes, great flavor.

Rouge et Noir — Mélange CamembertThis one's the mild-mannered, bookwormish sibling of the Mélange Brie - a Pinot Noir to the Brie's Cabernet. But don't be fooled: great rewards await those who take the time to discover its subtler walnut notes, very light tang, and a buttery texture that will have you wonder why anybody would badmouth fats. Shocking.

June 03, 2008

Warning: The following may not be suitable for vegetarian viewers.Oh, and no, it's not porn.

OK, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get down to some meaty business.Ah, sausages ... carnivores are especially fond of them. We like their spice-laced, succulent, savory meatiness anytime, any way: on warm, sunny days and cool, rainy evenings, solo on the end of a pier or at a ball park with thousands around, washed down with a mellow amber ale or a peppery zin.

So that much you meat-lovers already know -- but one thing you may not realize is that they're fairly easy to make. The variations range from venison to seafood, and once you know the basics, experimenting is easy. Also, they keep frozen really well for up to two months, and are always a hit at BBQs. Who can resist these homemade, custom-spiced pudgy bundles of delight? (That, fellow meat eaters, is a rhetorical question.)

Essential ingredients

The meatYou could go lean, but a little fat goes a long way for flavor, consistency, and that fantastic burst when you first bite into the sausage. For my pork sausages I like to use pork shoulder (also called pork butt), which is rich in flavor, tender, and quite affordable. Just don't eat six of them (burp).I had a few misadventures trying to get free-range meat, even in San Francisco. A week back I bought some a vendor sold to me as free-range, but after a little online research I realized the claim was untrue -- and this was a very reputable store. I strongly advise you to get it from a reliable, knowledgeable butcher like Prather Ranch or Golden Gate Meats in the Ferry Building, or Avedano's on Cortland Avenue.

The casingI like to use natural casing, made of pig intestine. Quit whining: if you're squeamish about natural casings, you probably won't enjoy making sausage. Most commercially-produced sausages are cased in artificial collagen casing, but natural casing gives a great snap to the sausage when you bite into it and has a delicate savoriness that complements the meat beautifully. I buy mine salt-packed from the Syracuse Casing Company. A pack of casings is called a Hank (I'm not making that up) and it will last up to several months in the fridge.

How do I do it?Here are some great recipes from Sausagemania and About.com. If you're serious about making sausages, I recommend Bruce Aidell's book. It's thorough and it has some excellent recipes and explanations of every step of the process, including smoking.

Once you've got your recipe and ingredients ready, start by pulling the casing out of its container. Each casing will be packed in salt, and wrapped around a plastic guide. One casing makes about forty sausages.

Soak your casing about ten minutes in cold water, without removing it from its pink plastic guide. You will use that guide to slide the casing onto the meat grinder feeding tube. After soaking, rinse your casing under running water for a minute to make sure there's no salt left on it.

While the casing is soaking, grind your free-range meat with the fat according to your recipe. Don't freak out if the recipe asks you to add fat: much of it will melt away in cooking, leaving just the flavor behind. Look at that beautiful red and white streakiness .... mmmm, marbling...

When the meat has been ground with the fat, prepare your spices. I like to grind my spices fresh whenever possible with a mortar and pestle for a stronger, fresher flavor ... plus I like to kick it old school style.

Add the spices to the meat, and when they're all in...

... you mix it all together by hand, making sure the spices are evenly distributed in the meat. This part is totally sexy.

Test-cook a few small pieces of sausage so you can adjust for spices and salt. If it seems a little strong, remember that after sitting in the fridge, the flavors will round out and make nice with each other. Needless to say, you don't need to add any grease to the pan.

Once the proportions are right, let the meat rest a few minutes while you prepare the stuffing tube. I use the Kitchen Aid attachment, which works pretty well. You can also use a hand-cranked meat grinder and sausage stuffer, though it's quite a workout.

Slide the pink plastic guide onto the tube, and push the casing onto the tube. While holding the casing firm, pull out the guide, leaving the casing ready for the stuffing. If you've done it right it should look like a Sharpei puppy's tail.

Tie the end of the casing, so the meat won't fall out once it starts being extruded from the tube.

With a fork, pinch a few small holes at the end of the casing, so that any air is pushed out of the casing. Otherwise, it will inflate like a balloon.

Hold the casing onto the tube with one hand, and stuff the meat into the grinder with the other hand. As the meat fills the casing, let it slowly inch forward and keep cramming meat into the grinder.

Make sure the casing is not stuffed too tightly. The stuffed casing should feel like a balloon that has lost some air, and gives 1/4 of an inch when you squeeze it. You'll need that latitude to divide the sausages, tie them off, and prevent bursting while cooking.

Once all the meat has been extruded, tie the other end of your casing. You should have one obscenely long sausage. Make sure you give yourself about an inch or two of casing extra at the end to leave room for adjustments.

Now you're ready to tie off your sausages. Begin where you started, at the end you stuffed first. Decide the length of your sausage, and gently slide the meat forward from that spot until you've formed an hourglass shape. Then give the sausage a turn where you want to tie it off, and at that spot, use food-quality string to tie two knots about 1/4 inch apart from each other. Later, you'll cut in between these two knots to divide your sausages into single servings.

Once they're tied, your sausages should be plump, but still give a little when you poke them. But before you eat or freeze them, they need to rest about 24 hours in the refrigerator so the flavors mellow and blend. (If you must have sausage NOW, go ahead -- I know the feeling. Otherwise, you can fry up a patty of the leftover meat filling.) Make sure to cover your sausages tightly with plastic wrap or place them inside a tight container, or the surface of your sausages will dry up and break.

The next day, you can either cook your sausages or freeze them in freezer bags. Usually I put one or two in a bag, so I can defrost only what I need for pasta sauce or lunch. Be sure to thaw them for 2 hours before you cook them, or put what you need in the refrigerator the night before you use them. In a defrosting pinch, the microwave does the trick on a low setting.

If you think these babies look good, wait until you smell them hit a hot pan. Enjoy!Marco Flavio

December 11, 2006

Buongiorno.After our December group dinner, many of you asked me for the recipe of my mushroom pate. It's a tasty seasonal treat to bring to a holiday potluck and truly versatile, because you can adapt the recipe to make the most of whatever mushroom is in season. In December I used meaty Portobello, and at the November dinner I made it with Shitakes (which I sometimes grow myself, but it's really not necessary). The base recipe comes from back home in Italy, where we use Porcini. A little goes a long way as an appetizer with a nice crusty bread, and really satisfies that winter craving for savory umami flavors. You can omit the truffle oil, but it gives the pate greater depth of flavor: All you need is a teaspoon or two.Enjoy and let me know how you liked it,Marco Flavio

Takes about 50 minutes to make and at least 2 hours in the refrigerator to come together (or overnight). It will keep well for a few days refrigerated. Don't whine about the fat: It's a pate.

Ingredients1 lb. Shitake mushrooms1/2 an ounce of dried porcini mushrooms (optional)1 stick of butter, unsalted1/2 cup of extra-virgin olive oil2 Bay leaves3 cloves of garlic1 cup of dry white white (Sauvignon Blanc works very well)Salt to taste (start with 1 and a quarter teaspoons; I like almost two)Freshly-ground pepper to taste (I like to put in quite a bit)

How do I do it?If you are using the porcini as well, boil exactly 1 cup of water, and soak the dried porcinis in it for at least 20 minutes.Brush the Shitake mushrooms (do not rinse them in water). Remove the stems, cut of the end where they're attached to the ground and chop them in small pieces with the caps (about the size of a small corn kernels). You can use a food processor if you want, but make sure the pieces don't get too small.

Cook them covered in a skillet with the bay leaves, the drained porcini (keep the water they soaked in) and the chopped garlic for 30 minutes on a low flame. Every now and them lift the cover and add some of the wine and some of the porcini water. The liquids should be all used up before the 30 minutes are up.After 30 minutes of simmering, remove the lid. If still too wet, let the moisture evaporate: It should look like a thick sauce, not watery at the bottom. Don't burn it. Turn the burner off and remove the bay leaves. If you like a finer consistency, chop it finer with an immersion blender or in the food processor before adding the butter.

Melt the stick of butter in the microwave. The butter should not cook, just melt.Add it to the pate and stir it in vigorously. At this point add a teaspoon of white (or black) truffle oil if you want repeat invitations to the dinner you're taking it to.Truffle flavor does not like high-temperatures, so add it always at the end for maximum flavor.

Place the pate in a bowl and refrigerate it before serving at least 2 hours, the flavors will meld and concentrate.

December 09, 2006

Coo coo ca-choo -- a fresh crop of walnuts is in!They're firm-textured and impressively leaf-and-weather stained -- they have to hang in there through wind and rain to grow ripe for the table. When they're ready, they have a complex, aromatic, savory flavor: the ideal complement to a gorgonzola and roasted beet salad, a rich whole-wheat bread, or pancakes with a drizzle of amber-colored maple syrup.

In Italy, we've always had a profound attachment to this delightful nut. Since the ancient Romans lugged it all the way across the empire from Persia, where it was a food reserved for royalty, it's been part of our cuisine. The Persian walnut is now known as the English walnut, because the British spread it through their
colonies, including the United States. Officially Romans called it the "royal acorn of Jupiter" -- but because of its suggestive shape when cut in half, it was popularly associated with Juno, the goddess of
fertility. Women trying to get pregnant would carry walnuts.

But when you're popular, there's always someone who doesn't like you. As the 1700s story goes in Benevento, near Naples, there was a large walnut tree that the locals believed to be the site of Satanic rites and witches' gatherings. The local bishop tried to have it removed, roots and all, but the tree sprung up again -- tenacious as a true southerner.

December is when walnuts are harvested at their most flavorful. The ones you find in the market year-round come from storage, and their flavor is often weaker and less nuanced. Since walnuts are oil-rich, they may even turn slightly rancid -- so make the most of what's available now.

Get that nutcracker we hear so much about about this time of year, and put it to use. Enjoy the primal pleasure of hearing the shell crack, followed by the initial whiff of the flavor to come. Extract the pieces, one chunk at a time. If you're lucky, the whole half of that butterfly-shaped kernel will come out in one piece. Chew it slowly: Let the aroma linger in your mouth. There's an initial astringency, followed by that distinctive rich flavor in the back of your palate. There it is -- subtle at first, like fog lifting. Exhale though your nose: That's when most of the complexity unfolds.

Nutritional InformationBy now you've been bombarded with nutritionists' findings that Omega-3 oils are good for you, and told by vitamin salespeople that fish and flaxseed are the only worthwhile sources to fulfill our daily nutritional requirements. (Did they convince you to have a tablespoon of raw flaxseed oil every morning? I'm sorry...I did it once, but never again.)

Selection and StorageIn storage mold may grow on walnuts, so check to be sure the stains are from weather exposure. Smell them before you buy to make sure they haven't gone rancid from improper storage. Once shelled, you should store walnuts in the fridge. They'll be fine for about 6 months. If you need them to keep for the whole year, divide them in single-usage packets and freeze them.

PreparationAs with most nuts, walnut flavor is amplified by roasting. But because Omega-3 oils are very delicate and heat-sensitive (remember the flaxseed oil you were told to consume raw?) they should be roasted at just 160-170°F (about 75°C) for about 15-20 minutes.

October 05, 2006

Buongiorno.Already we’ve talked about one fruit that staked its place among the vegetables in the kitchen: the tomato. Now let’s talk about its cousin, the eggplant.

The two fruits arrived in Europe about the same time, in the 1500s, although the eggplant came from East Asia instead of the New World. But both belong to the Solanaceae family, which makes them relatives of Deadly Nightshade. With such a nefarious family and natural bitter flavor, the eggplant was not initially welcomed in Europe, and even believed capable of infecting its eaters with insanity and leprosy.

The eggplant soon became such an important part of Mediterranean cuisine that its name, color and luster immediately bring to mind the complex, aromatic dishes characteristic of early fall. Growing up I was never particularly fond of its flavor or texture, but that has changed dramatically now that I’ve witnessed its starring roles in many outstanding Chinese, Japanese and North African dishes. The weird name eggplant belongs to the variety that was first imported in the English-speaking world, due to its egg shape (see photo).

So now the question is: which ones to buy?Buy shiny, firm, unbruised ones. No dark spots or wrinkling should be present on the skin (that means it's already decaying). The stem should be bright green (purple in the Japanese variety): The more wilted and brown or discolored it looks, the longer it's been since it was picked. Press on the fleshy part: if it bounces back, it’s ripe. If not, try another one. If you have the option, select small to medium eggplants rather than large ones, especially for the European variety. They usually contain fewer seeds and have a sweeter, less bitter, flavor.

The eggplant growing seasons lasts from July through October, so buy them only then. They love the sun, and if you indulge their tanning cravings, you’ll taste the difference. Eggplant is a truly nutritious vegetable, laden with antioxidants in its flesh and in its skin, so don’t peel it unless it’s very large and has tough skin. It's also very good source of dietary fiber, potassium, manganese, copper and thiamin (vitamin B1), vitamin B6, folate, magnesium and niacin.

You can keep them in the refrigerator inside a plastic bag for up to 5 days, but they are most flavorful and least bitter when fresh. Don't say I didn't warn you.

How do I prepare it?European variety eggplants must be salted before use, as this will remove their bitter juices (the sweeter Japanese and Thai ones don't need it). Cut them in 1/2 inch round slices, place a layer of them in a colander, sprinkle a nice layer of salt on top of them, then lay down a paper towel and another layer of eggplant slices, salt and so on until you’re done. Then put a small weight on top of them for about 30 minutes to purge them of those evil-inducing juices… or at least that bitter flavor. Once the 30 minutes have elapsed, remove them, rinse them slightly, and leave them in the colander to dry a bit until needed.

The salting process will also make them absorb less oil during cooking, giving you a lighter morsel. If you’re going to fry them, you should dip the slices in a coating of flour, egg and bread crumbs before frying to lessen oil absorption. Remember that brick-heavy fried eggplant dish? The one that seemed tasty at the time, but afterwards you couldn't sleep a wink? That’s the fault of the spongy texture, meant to absorb whatever they are mixed with. It’s also the reason they are so versatile and go with so many other flavors.

If you’re using the eggplant diced in a recipe, cut right before adding, as the flesh discolors quickly once exposed to air.

Eggplant can be baked, roasted in the oven, or steamed. If baking it whole, pierce the eggplant several times with a fork to make small holes for the steam to escape. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 45 minutes, depending upon size. That will give you a most versatile and savory pulp that can be transformed into many dishes, including the delicious eggplant caviar … stay tuned for the recipe next week.

September 18, 2006

Buongiorno.What an exhilarating evening it was! Thank you all for coming and cooking here and now with us. It was truly rewarding and wonderful to see everybody there, see dishes being made, and sharing the jointly-made dinner with new friends. Some photos have been posted on flickr by Cook Here and Now participant Mini Kahlon. Go ahead and check them out!

Now as requested, I'm sending out a call for your recipes. I'd like to post them so that we can make these dishes at home. The idea is to learn, get inspired, and try the new and different. Our dinner was a remarkable example of that: Our wild-caught salmon dishes ranged from Dan's delicately smoked coho to Mini's kick-in-the-pants Bengali mustard salmon.

So send them over to me when you get a chance. It's OK if you take your time. I'll post 2 or 3 recipes per week, as I get them, so that they can always be accessible here on the blog.

Again, thank you all so much, and special thanks to our gracious host Jeremy.Grazie mille,Marco Flavio

This first recipe from our dinner is from Samsara. Grazie.

Phyllo-wrapped wild-caught salmon with leeks and red bell peppers

This recipe can be prepared 6 hours ahead.Refrigerate and bake as needed. Serves 6.Ingredients

8 tablespoons butter

4 cups red bell peppers, cut into matchsticks size strips

1 large leeks, (white and pale green) cut into matchstick size strips

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

1 teaspoon salt

12 sheets phyllo sheets

6 5-ounce skinless and boneless salmon fillets

Preparation

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add bell peppers and leek and sauté until leek is tender, about 5 minutes. Add wine and crushed red pepper to skillet. Simmer until liquid evaporates. Transfer vegetable mixture to a medium bowl. Stir in the basil and salt. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt remaining butter in a small saucepan. Place 1 phyllo sheet on work surface. Brush with some melted butter. Top with a second phyllo sheet; brush with melted butter. Place 1 salmon fillet crosswise on phyllo sheet. Top salmon fillet with a heaping tablespoon of the vegetable mixture. Fold sides of phyllo and roll salmon to enclose in pastry, forming a rectangular packet. Transfer to a heavy large baking sheet, vegetable side up. Brush packet with melted butter. Repeat the same process with remaining phyllo sheets, salmon and vegetables. Bake salmon until pastry is pale golden and salmon is cooked through, about 30 minutes.

September 01, 2006

Wow! We are thrilled at the
attention and excitement generated by our awesome tomatoes. Thanks
Marco! We felt so welcomed at Alemany that we're bringing almost twice
as many tomatoes next time. Miles and I will also have a lot of
heirloom tomatoes. Many heirlooms are overhyped, trendy, and not
remarkable taste-wise, but we found some that are up to our standards.
They're big, thin-skinned and an interesting purple-red when ripened.We
bring them a little underripe so they can handle the market and journey
home; they'll ripen beautifully.

My husband and I have been farming for more than 20 years and we've
grown all sorts of vegetables, but our hearts belong to our dry-farmed
tomatoes. They are so special. And they do elicite such passion from
customers! Like a perfect peach or fragrant strawberry, our tomatoes
seem so rare among modern supermarket produce. They bring people back
to their childhoods, their old country, the family garden, sunny summer
memories...

August 30, 2006

Buongiorno.
Among my Italian friends, we often speak of a most wonderous creature, an elusive being that we await for all year that reminds us we are not that far from home after all.

One taste, one look, and we're right there, if only for a few precious moments. Sun in our face, loud conversation surrounding us, words ending in vowels, and heat so intense, even thinking makes us sweat: This is the role of the tomato in Italian lore.

Last year, thanks to a fortuitous series of circumstances, a few Italian friends and I discovered a particularly phenomenal one. It was an organic, dry-farmed tomato from the Bartle family farm: Two Dog Farm. We all agreed it had the perfect flavor and texture, and we started buying up the stock at the only 2 markets in San Francisco that carried it. When the season ended in September 2005, we resigned ourselves to the fact that it would be another year until such a treat would grace our plates again.

Well, it's back! I quickly emailed the interested parties: Let the eating begin. Summer fog be damned! For us the tomato defines the season, not the lousy weather.

This past weekend, I'd just bought a couple of pounds at Buffalo grocery in the Castro, when I did my regular walk through the Alemany farmers' market — and lo and behold, what do I see? Could it be? It was! I swiftly looked up and asked: Are you the Bartle family?That's how I met Nibby and Miles (below), two farmers whose product allows me to feel just a bit closer to home.

The Bartles are a family of four from the Santa Cruz area running a small family farm, and it was their very first day at a San Francisco farmer's market. I told them what their tomatoes meant for me and my friends, and how we looked forward to eating those dry-farmed beauties all year.

All their effort means something very special to me, to Ilaria, and to many others — on a personal level, not in some abstract way. From their care, to the market, to my hands, to me and my dinner guests.

Now if we could all reap such rewards from our daily work...

In Italian the tomato used to be called pomo d'amore, pome of love, back in the 1800s when it was the custom for a gentleman to bring a small tomato plant when visiting his beloved. It was only introduced to Europe from central and south American plant in the 1500s, so it was still an exotic gift, like bringing an orchid these days. It wasn't eaten; its kinship with the notorious Deadly Nightshade (in Italian, belladonna) affected its popularity as an edible vegetable. Between the lethal belladonna (literally, "beautiful woman" in Italian) and the supposedly poisonous pome of love, you can make your own deductions about the Italians' particular outlook on love and relationships.

Over time, the pomo d'amore's red, orange and sometimes bright yellow colors turned its name to pomo d'oro (pome of gold), and that's how it remains to this day: Pomodoro. The word in English and most other western languages come from the Nahuatl (the language used by the Aztecs) tomatl.

Which ones do I buy?Taste them and buy only the fresh, ripe, spicy-scented ones — put your nose to them already! When fresh, they're a nutritional powerhouse. If they're allowed to ripen on the vine, tomatoes develop a very rich, full flavor thanks to the presence of the savory Glutamic acid (present in most meats). Glutamic acid is responsible for one of the basic five flavors: Umami. At full ripeness you'll also notice a a carmel undertone that comes from the production of the desired furaneol aroma compound (also present in strawberries and pineapples).

Don't bother buying supermarket-variety tomatoes, the poster children of flavorless produce. These tomato species are selected for their capacity to tolerate long shipping, instead of flavor. They're picked when still green, and their red color is produced with exposure to ethylene gas.

Now, do everyone a favor: Go to the market, sample a few Bartle tomatoes and bring some home. Slice them, dress them with a touch of extra-virgin olive oil and a few drops of balsamic vinegar, indulge their demand for a few leaves of sun-drenched basil, add some fresh, creamy mozzarella, and devour.

Here's the problem: Supermarkets have been telling us less and less about what we eat. We have 14 types of peanut butter, but only one or two labeled plums? I don't think so.

One plum you might like because of its gingery, tart flavor, one for its sweet and delicate aroma. Many may be too perfumy or tangy for your taste. If you only have the one you don't like and it's called a plum, you'll assume that you don't like plums. Wrong. You haven't been given sufficient information. Go and sample. Just like with customer service: Always ask for a name.

Last weekend I was pleased to discover that one of my favorites is finally on the stands: King Flavor. It's a red or maroon pluot, very sweet, with a rich, broad but not perfumy scent and a tangy underflavor. Now, we all agree: They were not going for subtlety with that name, but sometimes you have to tell it like it is.

I bought a couple of pounds of these maroon organic beauties from Ferrari Farms from Linden, CA ($2 a pound; thank you Señor Mario for the advice) thinking that with the other fruit I bought they would last me through the week. Not so. They're gone. Bye-bye. And I'm a happier man for it. They were here, they were delicious and I ate them all in no time flat.

Plums are one of those summer treats that bring back memories—and if you have no plum memories, now's as good as any other time to start making some. Nutritionally, they're rich in Vitamin C, fiber (4% of your daily allowance in 1 plum), have a good amount potassium, and are cholesterol- and sodium-free. It's great snack after a hike or a run, or between meals.

How do I select them?When you're about to buy them, make sure they're firm to the touch but give a little. They will not get any sweeter as they ripen—so if they're tart when you sample them, that's how they'll remain. They'll ripen and soften further if left outside the fridge 1 or 2 days, especially in a warm room. At that point they can be refrigerated 2-3 days to prevent them from becoming overripe. If they're too hard (don't give almost at all to the touch, tennis-ball-like) they might've been too underripe when picked, and may never be ready to be eaten.

If you get them from a farmer's market they often still have the "bloom", that fog-like patina that indicates minimal handling and freshness. Before eating them (if you can find it in you to wait), let them come to room temperature. Their flavor will bloom; cold temperatures inhibit aromas (this goes for almost any food or beverage).

What enhances their flavor?Savory spices, especially when poached or roasted. Try cinnamon, cardamom, or nutmeg. Vanilla also works well; try dicing some and eating them with a little vanilla ice cream.If you can resist eating them out of the bag and want to cook with them, here are some ideas from RecipeZaar.com. Hint, hint: Try the Vanilla Poached Plums or the Plums in Marsala (but forget the yogurt).

When are they available?They peak in August and September. Drive, walk, run to the market! They're on the stands June through October.